Facilitation/Training/Coaching

There’s no such thing as everlasting love…

Ok, at first sight the description of love as “micro-moment of positivity resonance.” is not that appealing. But when you dig down to what this means, I think it’s actually quite inspiring. Love may be less grand, but it’s also much more accessible than most pop songs would have you believe.

As an improviser, I loved the bit of MRI research into how people listen. Here’s the nub of it:

What they found was remarkable. In some cases, the brain patterns of the listener mirrored those of the storyteller after a short time gap. The listener needed time to process the story after all. In other cases, the brain activity was almost perfectly synchronized; there was no time lag at all between the speaker and the listener. But in some rare cases, if the listener was particularly tuned in to the story—if he was hanging on to every word of the story and really got it—his brain activity actually anticipated the story-teller’s in some cortical areas.

I think the greatest improv happens when that third state is going on.

Lessons for facilitators: Notice more, change less, and be wary of the grandiose. And don’t sacrifice humble more intimate conversations for boring powerpoint.